Tuesday, 29 November 2011

I have a confession to make and it may lead some of you think I am a little weird or naive. And that's ok - cause that's the thing about blogging isn't it, there is no point in pretending to be something I'm not. If I am going to invite you in to my world, I need to be honest about who I am.

Sometimes when I am tired and a perhaps a little overwhelmed by life, my deeper side surfaces, and it lingers, just for a little while. And it is times like these that I tend to open up a little more than I normally do and share some of the crazy stuff that goes on inside this head of mine.

Oh geez - reading back over that, it sounds like I am about to confess to a gruesome crime or some completely shocking. But nup - sorry to disapoint, nothing of that nature.

You see - I don't watch the news and I don't read the news.
Typically on any given day - I have no idea what is going on outside of my own little world.

I used to be a news addict. I had breaking news and Nine MSN up on my desktop all day. I devoured the news papers and I watched both the early news and the late news reports.

But about 8 months ago now, I watched my son have anxiety attacks over things he had seen on the news. I held him as he exhaustively bled his fears to me. He is 10 and shouldn't know what an anxiety attack feels like. Unfortunately anxiety runs in our family and my 6 year old also struggles with his own panic attacks.

It got me thinking though - when I was a kid of that age, the world seemed to be a much nicer place. It was safer and generally just more peaceful. I didn't worry about earthquakes or comets hitting the earth. I didn't think about gun men and terrorists and wars. I wasn't touched by the fear of rapists, home invasions and disease. No I lived in a perfectly peaceful if somewhat naive little world. But wow it was a beautiful place.

We weren't exposed to the news at all the levels we are today. It's on our radios, our TVs, news papers, our computers, our phones.

So much of my own anxiety stems from worrying. Worrying about things I hear about or read about, that could possibly happen, but most likely wont. Things I have no control over - horrible things lurking out there threatening to spoil my beautiful peaceful world.

Call me ignorant or just plain stupid if you please, but I decided I wanted to live in THAT world again and I wanted my kids to experience that world for themselves. They grow up so quickly and there is plenty of time for them to worry about what is really going on out there, when they are older and have the nicer world firmly imprinted in their memory to fall back on.

So I turned the news off!

I am well aware of the dangers that exist to us and our earth and I live my life respectfully doing what I can to protect our planet and protect my family and kids from as many of those dangers that I can. I abide by the laws, I vaccinate my kids and I do my bit for the community. I teach my children how to care for the earth and to show respect for diversity and different cultures and opinions. But I don't need to be reminded every day about the horrible things in this world that are fed to us so graphically through words and images that sting my soul.

I know there are good news reports out there and I have family who is in the media. My sister in law actually reads the news on TV and my brother is a news cameraman who has travelled the world reporting back stories from war torn countries - so I have a healthy respect for the news and the role it plays in society. But its just not for me anymore.

I am in business and I do unfortunately have to read about the financial news to stay on top of my job, but that's all the news I allow myself to be touched by.

My husband watches the news and reads the papers and he will relay anything to me I really need to know, but he edits things and censors them when he does tell me. Occasionally he pauses the news and plays something back to me that is of the feel good variety - you know the stories that restore your faith in man kind. But mostly he just keeps the news to himself.

So there you have it - Probably one of THE strangest things about me there is.

Like I said - That's just who I am, and at the risk of sounding completely ignorant, immature and incredibly naive, I make no apologies. I love my little world I live in. I don't know how long I get to be here in this life, but I do know that I don't want to spend what time I do have worrying about what could happen.

I want to be like Peter Pan and live in my very own Never Never land.

If you get a little laugh out of our Hiccups around here, that makes me mighty happy.

If you are feeling the love even, I would so appreciate it if you could
please click on the "Vote for Me" button and vote for me in the Circle
of Moms Top 25 Aussie Blogs.

You can vote for all the fabulous Aussie blogs whilst you are there and
you can vote once a day until voting closes on December 8th 2011.

Monday, 28 November 2011

Welcome to the first of the Wonderful Weekends Blog Hop that takes place here every Monday.

Please feel free to link up a post about whatever Wonderful Things you got up to this past weekend. It could be about a day out with your family and friends, a great place to visit, perhaps a meal you whipped up, a home or garden reno or some fabulous craft project you worked on. Whatever it is - it goes!

So what wonderful things did we get up to around here this past weekend?

We have been very busy around here these past few days.

As you may know I work from home full time so I spend a large chunk of my day sitting in my home office. It was kind of a depressing space though as it was a real hodge podge of furniture and it seriously lacked any style. Not a very inspiring place to work.

So for ages I have dreamt about making over my home office, and finally we actually got around to doing it.

Here is the before shot of what my office space looked like. Unfortunately I have lost the photos of before we emptied it out?? But trust me, it was not at all stylish.

Add some Dulux Accord Grey paint, Some new furniture from Officeworks and Ikea and a fabric covered pin board by yours truly and wallah - an inspiring new place for me to work in.

I still have small touches to do, like labels on the baskets and some more art work for above the shelves, but the majority of the work is done.

I have one helluva swollen thumb from the damn Allan key which was needed to put together all the furniture, but hey I totally rocked those flat pack instructions. I had it all done before my hubby got home from work!

That wasn't the only thing we got up to around here on the weekend.....

My hubby had a surfing competition on so I thought it was the perfect time to take my munchkins on a date with the old mum.

We hit the movies to see Arthur's Christmas which was sooo cute. I heart
a good Christmas movie and this one ticked all the boxes.

Can you see the resemblance???

We then hit up our favourite Pizza restaurant Cantina, for some dinner before heading home to you guessed it, watch some more Christmas movies.

The kids got there letters to Santa finished of and ready to post.

Add to all this activity a couple of birthday parties and Karate and it was one busy weekend.

So tell me - what Wonderful things did you get up to this weekend?

If you have a blog, I would love you to link up your Wonderful Weekend Post so we can all have a sticky beak and enjoy.

How to join in and Link up

Follow Life Love and Hiccups cause I would totally love you to join the family :)

Grab the Wonderful Weekends button and post it in your sidebar or in your Wonderful Weekends post.

Add your post url to the linky thingy (totally a technical term) in
the Wonderful Weekends Post which will be live every Monday on Life Love
and Hiccups.

For every one to get the most out of this Blog Hop, please remember
to visit the other members. Enjoy and be inspired by their posts and
share the comment love.

Friday, 25 November 2011

OK I guess it kind of sucks if you have to work, and I feel really sorry for you if you are one of those who do. But for the rest of us, it generally means freedom, fewer time restraints and precious time to spend with the family and friends.

I have a confession to make - I am a complete nosy parker. I love seeing what fabulous things people get up to on the weekends. I am always quizzing my friends about what they did, where they went etc.

You see, not only does it satisfy my curiosity, it inspires me. I love finding out about new places to visit and explore, new recipes to try out with the kids or on friends and crafts to have a go at. I am totally inspired by home reno's, room makeovers, gardens and table settings for dinner parties. You name it - I love it and I am pretty sure I am not alone in this.

So I decided what better way for us to share our ideas and our weekend adventures than a linky party celebrating all things to do with our wonderful weekends.

Mondays suck and they can more often than not be a bit of a downer coming off the back of a fabulous weekend. This way we get to extend our weekends a little longer - even if it is just in our memories or the plans we start to make for the following weekend.

So please join me on Mondays to celebrate Wonderful Weekends. Write about everything or anything that you did, made or discovered over the weekend.

And Look - I even made a button! For a total non tech head, that was quite a feat! You can find the code in my sidebar.

How to join in and Link up

Follow Life Love and Hiccups cause I would totally love you to join the family :)

Grab the Wonderful Weekends button and post it in your sidebar or in your Wonderful Weekends post.

Add your post url to the linky thingy (totally a technical term) in the Wonderful Weekends Post which will be live every Monday on Life Love and Hiccups.

For every one to get the most out of this Blog Hop, please remember to visit the other members. Enjoy and be inspired by their posts and share the comment love.

Please don't let me be a Nigel no friends. I hope to see you here next Monday :)

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Nope - let's just be completely honest here. I am so over that line. I am an out of control OCD clean freak!. There much better.

Now let's face it - the male specimen are not usually the neatest breed. My guys (hubby included) like to leave little piles of stuff everywhere. In their opinion, if it is in a pile, then it is neat.
In my opinion - they are so wrong and it drives me nuts.

So this little neat freak devised another little sneaky combat strategy to tame the mess and tackle the clutter.

I needed a new entrance table for our house. You know something to put your bag on and display some bits and pieces to make your home nice and welcoming when you enter it.

I hunted high and low for the perfect piece and whilst I was browsing the hall tables at good old Domayne I had a light bulb moment that screamed pure genius.

A little happy dance later and a few strange looks from bystanders, and I was negotiating a price on a fabulous buffet table, with drawers and cupboards. For us 3 doors / drawers was perfect as we have 3 kids.

The innocent looking entry unit

In the cupboard part I put a box with my child's name on it. This is known in our house as your tub.
Now every day my kids are responsible for picking up all their crap and putting it in their tub. Once a week, they have to empty their tubs and put the stuff back into their rooms.

Under the tubs is a little shelf that is the perfect place for them to put their school shoes and sports shoes as soon as they come in the house. No more hunting for missing shoes before school in the mornings.

The hidden tubs hides the clutter that would normally be strewn around the house.

As I mentioned this buffet unit has drawers too. Well my little guys like to get dressed for school downstairs as that is where we lay out their school clothes the night before. So every morning we had PJs strewn across the family room, left there for good old Mum to pick up and put away.

Now as part of their usual morning routine, the boys have to put their PJs in their drawers, ready for their showers later that evening. My 4 year old likes to just put everything in there, but for the moment that is fine by me, because whilst it is shoved in there, it is not sitting in a pile on the kitchen bench.

Oh the joy!! - My child actually putting things away in his drawer.

This is totally a KISS system (Keep it Simple Stupid), but hey it works. No more piles left around the house = a happy OCD Mama.

Scary looking but a totally Happy Mama - I have won this battle for now!

I am thankful for those little light bulb moments and the small mum victories that make our day!

Linking up with Kate Says Stuff for Thankful Thursday.

Make sure you pop on over and check out all the fabulous blogs that link up.

If you get a little laugh out of our Hiccups around here, that makes me mighty happy.

If you are feeling the love even, I would so appreciate it if you could please click on the "Vote for Me" button and vote for me in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Aussie Blogs.

You can vote for all the fabulous Aussie blogs whilst you are there and you can vote once a day until voting closes on December 8th 2011.

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

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Do you know that for years I have sewn everything by hand. Insane isn't it! Actually that was more of a statement than a question because I totally know it is insane.

Anyway on Thursday night I had this brainwave to make some bunting for the back deck for a party I was having on the weekend. I cut out 22 fabric triangles and set about sewing them....by hand!

My dear hubby looked at me struggling over the needle and thread with my tongue sticking out the side of my mouth in my trademark concentration pose and said to me "For God's sake Sonia - buy yourself a sewing machine will you!"

Well I so do not have to be told twice oh dutiful wife that I am. The next day on the way home from a work meeting, I picked myself up a little Singer I did!

Only nights ago I was admiring Jess from Diary of a SAHM's fabulous machine Betty, and now I am the proud owner of my own little mean lean sewing machine.

This is my chessy Sale of the Century shot.

My first project was to whip up the bunting for my party and it literally took me all of 38 minutes to be precise.

Slap me Silly and Call me Billy - where have you been all my life you gorgeous little machine.

So now I kind of fancy myself as a bit of a Martha and I have images of me just whipping up some new curtains and cushions.

I think my hubby may live to regret unleashing this beast in me when he is forced to wear the home made boardies I intend on making him as thanks for his generosity.

Do you want to see my first little project? No? Well I am so going to show you anyway :)

Tada!!! Presenting some party bunting and some cute little lunch bags for my 2 older boys. Oh the joy!

The bunting was really easy to make.

If you want to have a go yourself, here is some super simple instructions.

Cut out a triangle template and trace triangles onto some fabric.

I cut out 22 for this project.

Fold your fabric over twice as if you were hemming it,

then sew a channel to thread your rope through.

Use a skewer to thread the cord through the channel.

I didn't sew the flags on to tape as I wanted to be able to use this bunting in different areas.
This way I can remove some of the flags if I don't want to hang it somewhere so wide.